CAMELS IN THE UNITED STATES 



They were landed at Galveston and from there taken 

 overland to Los Angeles, for the purpose of trans- 

 porting military supplies from that point to various 

 places in Arizona and California. En route, however, 

 a number of these camels were lost or strayed near 

 Agua Caliente, about seventy-five miles east of the 

 Colorado River, The remainder were delivered at 

 their destination, but their use was found impracticable, 

 the rocks and gravel being too sharp for their feet. 

 Considerable hostility also was excited amongst the 

 teamsters and freighters, who went so far as to shoot 

 the camels, on the ground that their presence caused 

 the horses and mules to stampede. 



Of the camels taken to Los Angeles, a number 

 were sent back to Arizona in 1876, for the purpose of 

 transporting ores from the then rich Silver King 

 mine. Here, again, their presence was resented by 

 the freighters, and the band was eventually turned 

 loose between the Gila and Colorado Rivers. In 

 1883, nine of them were captured by Papago Indians 

 and turned over to a circus, there being at that time 

 twenty in the herd, eleven of which were between 

 two and three years old. In the beginning of 19 12, 

 when I was last in Arizona, there were approximately 

 one hundred of them in the hills east of the Yuma 

 and Harqua Hala wagon road, away from the haunts 

 of white men and Indians. They run mostly in the 

 Eagle Tail Mountains where but few, if any, human 

 beings ever go. 



"The camel," says Dr. R. E. Drake-Brockman,* 

 " is to the Somali what the cow is to the Masai ; 

 either race will, without hesitation, lay down their 

 lives in their defence, and each in its turn is the 



^ British Somaliland, R. E. Drake-Brockman, p. 190. 



s 273 



